Very successful de-flooding technique - 15mins -

[Jester]

I went to leave for the Midlands Monthly meet on Wednesday, and the car had a low battery from laying dormant, so I consequently flooded it!

MazdaAssist came out, the guy had seen many cases, and set to work on repeatedly turning over, took the plugs out, dried them out, heated them up, all to no avail. 1 & 1/2 hrs later he gave up. I sent him home. I tried a few times over the weekend, foot to the floor 1st, then off the throttle. NADA .

A new guy came out this morning, as I was booked in for a service (and I had booked a courtesy car). Within 15 minutes, I was on my way!!!!
He said he had done loads of 8's, and never failed with this technique...ever.

Basically, he towed me down a straight road for a few hundred yards in 2nd gear, ignition on, and throttle to the floor to cut the fuel. The fuse was taken out the... (starter maybe?...dunno...usual reason?). He put the fuse back, turned the key & it fired straight away! He said it's safer for the cat this way, as the cat isn't getting hot while the fuel is being purged from the engine. The engine light came on (always does apparently) and he reset it (this needs to be done on early cars, but newer cars don't need it.. is what he said)

Anyone heard of this technique? I was certain of a labour charge coming my way at the stealers! I THANKED HIM VERY MUCH!!

Any thoughts? Druck, I know the car shouldn't be towed, but it literaly was a few hundred yards. Engine lubrication? I suppose the fuel and oil were present still?, was the oil pump working at the time?

Mazda looked over the car today and said all was well. Oil pipes being changed tomorrow

[I am Spartacus!]

a few folk on rx8club.com have done this and never had any issues

[Critters]

Oil pump is driven by chain from the main shaft so should have been fine.... but with no ignition and it pumping it would have built up, guess it burns off, was there lots of smoke when it did start up?

[Jester]

^^ No, there were trails of white, but no more than I would expect on such a cold morning. As far as I could tell the car started as if it had never been flooded.

Donna was watching me pull away from the drive being towed, and said at first there a few bursts of grey smoke pluming out the back. Unburnt fuel?

[Jester]

Cheers Druck, (Spin) Doctor DOOM

The good news is that I had a few warm starts today, fired instantly, as always. I don't think my car HAD to be started in this manner, it's just what the 2nd guy said worked every time, and suggested that his experience is that you can clean plugs and turn over the engine until the cows come home, and it is a challenge, no matter what the state of the engine is. After all, I had 1.5hrs spent on my car, and I've heard people on here saying theirs took longer.

My only problem is that now I'm just a little paranoid whenever I start the car! Has anyone else flooded their car and felt like that immediately after? How long before you again expect it to start every time? (or am I just being stoopid , and should carry on as if it never happened? )

[Mark Q]

We called Mazda assist about a year ago and he did this. Weve since had new starter and ecu but it has repeated twice, twice myself and Mrs Q have managed between us to get it going, yesterday being the last time.
Question > how do you reset the engine management light ? First time we did it it went out after engine shut doem and started again, doenst seem to have worked this time. I want to reset to see if there is still a problem there.

[Jester]

Don't know about the light. As I explained before, the guy said early cars all need re-setting using the WDS diagnostic computer, but later cars would reset themselves. I guess your car is a later car as it has gone out in the past? in which case maybe the light is on for a genuine alternate reason? I should get it checked out at the dealer if it persists.

[vikkic]

Ah James, seeing as you've just had a new cat fitted, would you still recommend this technique??

[Jester]

^^^ very good point Vikki, and seeing this post again reminded me of this!

HOWEVER!!, if the flooding incident was to blame for the demise of the cat, I would speculate that the 1st attempt at de-flooding, hours of cranking etc (which did not work in the end), may have been the culprit. I think that cranking the engine over much quicker, using the towing technique is more successful at clearing the unburnt fuel from the cat before it even gets a chance to get hot.

Anyway, all a bit academic I fear, as I believe the car has never felt better since the new cat was fitted. It's certainly faster and revs up much sooner than it has for at least 6 months. To be honest I never really noticed the degradation, so maybe it's always been slow. I think you noticed the same thing with your new cat didn't you Vikki?

[Mark Q]

I expected that if the fault were still present then the light would illuminate to tell me. If it was just informing me that there had been a fault then I didn't want all the hassle and expense to tell me what I already knew.
Light went out by itself yesterday, car runs normally
> must not leave it parked up a while then move it off drive without letting it run for a few mins > doh.

[Jester]

^^ glad the light's gone out now. It means it's unlikely there's a 2nd fault present.

As you said... DON'T DO IT AGAIN!

(I can't talk! )

[rossco_99]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

What a great tip - had to do this this morning and it worked like a dream.

I have never flooded my car before but think it was due to a short move from the garage to the drive and back again on saturday.
Just didn't want to start this morning and I was panicking!
Read this on here and it worked first time.



I won't do that agin!

[Jester]

Glad this helped.

Let us know if your CAT has any problems in the near future will ya?

[Joanie]

The car flooded for the first time today. (Andy moved it a short distance on Friday and forgot to rev before turning off the ignition - oops)

Called out RAC - (My Mazda Assist cover ran out with the warranty and RAC were cheaper at the time.) who arrived within 30 minutes of calling them at 7.40 am.

He was 'very' familiar with starting RX8s and because RAC had had so many problems in the past with this they now have guidance from Mazda directly. He had it started in 10 minutes - this is what he did.

1. Removed the 20 amp fuel pump fuse.
2. Turned the ignition and press accelerator flat to the floor for 10 seconds.
3. Let it stand for about 30 seconds.
4. Repeat step 2.

(At this point unfortunatley because Andy had already tried a few times to turn the engine over the battery was suffering so the RAC guy attached his battery to boost.)

5. After letting it stand for another 30 seconds he repeated step 2 again.
6. He then replaced the fuse and started the normal way ie. depress clutch but no accelerator - and yippee it worked!!

The guy did say to us that as soon as you know it has flooded follow the steps above to avoid unnecessary drain on the battery and should avoid a further call out to them.

I was so pleased that it started - had visions of the car being taken away.............

Joanie

[Jester]

very glad to hear that you got it started so easily Joanie. Hopefully no damage done to starter/battery/cat

My experience was that this did not work, the 1st guy to come out did exactly this, but failed completely.! A few others have had very stubborn flooded engines.

The lesson is - don't let it flood in the 1st place!! I know, stating the obvious! and I should practice what I preach!

[craigy85]

After 2 years (and just as i was about to sell her) i've managed to flood Rexy this morning I tried to de-flood her using the procedure in the FAQ section but to no avail! After going through the whole procedure and replacing the fuel pump fuse, she fired up straight away (up to about 2.5k revs, as normal) but then died off and refused to start again.

I only had chance to try it twice before having to leave her at home and get a lift to work but can anyone tell me:

1) Do i need to be using the throttle when i first attempt to start her (after de-flooding) to keep the revs up and stop her from stalling again?
2) How many attempts can this take (i.e. If i haven't managed after 2 attempts, should I be going for the tow option?) and;
3) If i do have to tow her, following the guidance from jester - Won't getting towed with your accelerator to the floor, with the ignition on in 2nd gear will result in you going in to the back of the car towing you?!? (or am i being blonde and missing something?)

Thanks in advance for any help!

[TeeRex]

OK, so don't flood it in the first place everyone says!! Well, having not managed it once in 8 months I went away with work for a month and left detailed instructions with the missus of how to run the car to tick it over.
Unfortunately she mistook the oil pressure gauge for the temp gauge and as soon as it reached the middle thought that was the cue to turn off the engine after about 1 min 30 (despite the instructions saying at least 5-10 mins!)
Thinking her duty was done she duly locked up the car and left it for another two weeks.
Home I come and after seeing a rather weather beaten and dirty car in the driveway (note to self: buy cover before going overseas again!) thought I would go for a spin. Denied.
Car turned over with no ignition. Gave it two goes before remembering the sage advice on this forum and stopped it there. Indoors to grab the laptop and do some reading.

5 mins later:
Hooked up to Mrs T's car battery
Fuel fuse removed
Air pump connection removed

Followed the instructions in the FAQ guide to the letter and after 15 mins and 4 cycles of the procedure, the Rex spluttered into life. It didn't seem to want to go at first and the temptation was to give it some gas- DON'T- let it do it's thing. Mine burst into song after a few seconds.
THEN- floor the gas pedal and watch the white smoke pump out and the unburnt fuel pop. I only had to do this briefly before all the smoke cleared.
As per the advice, take the car for a nice long run (it was great to open the throttle once again- I never fail to achieve a cheesy grin when getting back behind the wheel after being away.)
So, thanks everyone who has posted adivce and tips, I just hope that no long term damage has occurred.

The moral of the story:
If you re going to trust your beloved with your other beloved, make sure you have access to the internet!!

Cheers all.

[ady]

Can I offer a halfway house method between the "traditional method" and towing. I managed to flood mine while working on it in my garage, I won't go into detail but I had to switch it of immediately after starting it to stop it pumping all its oil onto the floor After fixing the oil problem I tried the normal de-flooding methods to no avail. Towing wouldn't be easy because my garage is down a narrow lane and getting it out on a tow rope would be hassle.
The engine will spin faster with the plugs removed, but with all the plugs removed you loose the effect of the plugs burning off the fuel that is in the engine. So my method was this;
Remove the trailing plugs, Leading still fitted and HT leads fitted.
Remove fuel pump fuse.
Crank engine for about 15 seconds.
Burn off the fuel that is on the trailing plugs, by holding in a flame.
Refit trailing plugs and leads
Refit fuel pump fuse
Start, and it did.

Another option to add to the list of de-flooding methods.

[ta88ycat]

^ is that safe? risk of fire, explosion etc?

[968csreading]

The Mazda assist chap who came out to my dead battery said that he only tries the normal techniques a few times to safeguard the starter motor then he tows it down the road. Works everytime he said.

Off topic he had just completed a week long course at Aston Martin learning all about the cars and driving them too. Seems they have a contract with AM and Jaguar.

He said the AA and RAC are stealing alot of the brand business now but dont offer the same service because they cant buy or carry parts and just tow the car/put it on a trailer.